My day off from bird photography was quite nice and in actuallity, this evening I did do a bit of bird photography but thats alright. It has been quite a while since I have done much landscape work and it was great to get out with the other camera system. While nearly all of my photography these days is digital, I do still work with film when it comes to landscapes. This is because Iuse a large format view camera known as a 4"x5". Picture any old movie where someone is taking a photograph and the photographer has to get under a dark cloth behind a giant camera. Well, that is what I use. It really is quite a work of art in itself. Made of wood, it accepts a lens at the front and a sheet of film at the rear. Without getting into all of the technicalities, it really opens up a lot of flexibility and provides an amazing about of detail. The film is not in a roll like most people are used to but is in sheets, that I must load individually. Each sheet is 4 inches by 5 inches, hence the name. Using this system is a much slower process but it really makes you look at each image carefully. In any given day, like today when I work with it most of the day, I might photograph three to six scenes in an entire day.
Now if you haven't realized already, one reason I went through all of that was to explain that this website will have very few landscape images on it for a while. Not because I am not photographing the landscape, but becuse I am waiting to develop all of my film when I return to the US next year where it is substantially cheaper. In most cases though Iwill have my digital camera along with me and try to snap a similiar shot to post, like the one here.
After photographing sunrise from just north of the campsite, I set out for day of hiking. My original plan was to do the most popular hike here, up into the Grand High Tops as shown in the above image. However, on my way up, I took a side trail instead in order to photograph the ridge while the light was right, rather than spend the entire day up in and among the rock formations. It turned out to be a great decision and I had a splendid time at the summit photographing and having lunch with 360 degree views.
On the way back to the car, I did a bit of birding and did manage to pick up four new species for the trip. One of the species, the Turquoise Parrot, is a bit of a specialtiy for the region and I was very pleased to see it as they are often hard to find. I didn't have the appropriate equipment with me to photograph it, so enjoyed the great views it provided without too much camera envy. The afternoon was spent back here working on the computer as I will be leaving her tomorrow and will probably have a chance to get online tomorrow or Tuesday and needed to finish a few things up to send out when I get connected.
Tomorrow, I am headed north, though I am not exactly sure where I will end up. However, by Tuesday night I hope to be camping at the world famous O'Reiley's Guest House in Queensland's Lamington National Park. It will be my first taste of Queensland where I probably will be for the next six to eight weeks. Hopefully it will be a bit warmer as well!
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